Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Oxley has a very short memory, because after six years of the worst government we have ever seen in this country the Australian people delivered a verdict on 7 September. That verdict saw the Labor Party get its lowest vote since 1903, and then when it came back to this place it turned its back on its people's choice and selected the member for Maribyrnong as its leader. Since then we have had negativity and opposition for opposition's sake. When we went to the last election we took three key policies: we were going to stop the boats, and we have done that; we were going to repeal the carbon tax, and we have done that; and, most importantly of all, we were going to repair the finances of this country. Do you know why? Because the legacy that the Labor Party left the Australian people is debt and deficit as far as the eye can see: $667 billion dollars of debt is where we are heading if we do not take corrective action. We are currently spending $1 billion a year on the interest bill just to finance the debt. Do you know what $1 billion a month—$12 billion a year—equates to? That equates to half the defence budget of this country or all the aged-care spending of the Commonwealth. That is just meeting the debt and deficit legacy that Labor left us.

We have to take corrective action. It is not just the Liberal Party and the coalition who are saying that. It is independent players like the Parliamentary Budget Office; it is the IMF, who have pointed out that of 17 advanced economies Australia has the fastest growing level of spending in the world; and it is the Commission of Audit. The Commission of Audit, amongst its many important findings, found that Australia faces a major demographic challenge. That major demographic challenge means that, while today we have five working Australians to every single retired Australian, that ratio will fall to 2.7 to one, and that is a problem.

Government spending in this country as a proportion of GDP has risen from 23.1 per cent in 2007, when we left government, to 25.9 per cent today. Again, if we do not take corrective action, that will go to 26.5 per cent of GDP equivalent to government spending. Why is this a problem? Because the government's tax revenues as a proportion of GDP are only around 22 per cent, so we are in structural deficit. We are spending more money than we are taking as a government, and that needs to stop.

In this budget we do a number of important things. First, there is the fiscal consolidation—paying back about $300 billion of Labor's debt and saving about $16 billion a year in interest over the next 10 years. That is critical. Second, we are putting a record spend on infrastructure, equivalent to about $125 billion a year if you take into account the private sector and the state governments' expenditure on infrastructure, which is stimulated by this budget, including through the Asset Recycling Fund. We are getting more young people and more older people into work than previously has been the case. Our 'earn or learn' strategy for under 30s is vital if we are going to reduce youth unemployment from the stubborn number of around 13 per cent, which continually went up under Labor. For over 50s who have been out of work for more than six months, we will provide an incentive payment to employers to take them on. This is absolutely critical. We are making a record spend investing in education and innovation. The medical research fund—where we are world's best—is now going to be stimulated by up to $20 billion as a result of those initiatives. We are giving real support to apprentices for the first time with a HECS-type loan of up to $20,000. This is making a real difference. Our universities will be unshackled with the deregulation of university fees, allowing them to compete with the world's best. This is what we are doing in this budget and this is critical to Australia's future.

Those opposite are hypocrites because they know that when they were in government under Bob Hawke they supported a Medicare co-payment. They know they support a PBS co-payment. They need to take their heads from under the sand and support our important measures contained in this budget. (Time expired)

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